the microbanker connection

At a onetime, Balbir Mathur, Co-Founder, Trees for Life (in Sam Daley-Harris, State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2009) says.....

“My friends, you have in front of you someone who had had the undeserved privilege of having gone through education exclusively as the result of a statistical error. I went to college in San Francisco, I did two master’s degrees at Stanford, I completed a PhD, I worked at the World Bank, and taught at Harvard…Now I carry in my heart a passion to try and free my people from poverty. I’m free now because by an accident, I had access to education. I can choose to teach at Harvard or Stanford or wherever

Put into simple action ~ Wooden Saving is about Planting Tree ~ but it embraces multi objectives. MikroBanker Connection uses this program both for anti-poverty and conservation endeavors. First,planting trees similar to build up future economic resources that would provide opportunities for poor children to reach their dreams go to schools. The principle is the planted trees can be harvested for educational funds. Second, to save the earth from environmental degradation in particular to increase the number of tropical trees and rain forest vegetation. More trees grow, more carbon emission that produced by mostly fossil oil-based activities and industries can be eliminated from the atmosphere. In addition, a large number of trees can maintain balance ecological system and favorable environement for living organism.

We welcome you to support the Wooden Saving program by donating only coins-change and keep your supports by visiting our website regularly. Please send an email to: contact@mikrobanker.com for detail info.

priciple

Saving is an old human culture. The basic principle is to put up excess resources into reserves for future needs, emergencies and to build wealth as well. In the beginning of civilization, the frontier society saved in kinds such as food commodities, treasures, and other fixed assets etc. Now, in modern world, saving constitutes money, shares and paper-based investment through banking and finance instruments; but there is still a part of society uses in kind models as means of saving.

Majority people eager to save whenever there is any disposal money. Unfortunately poor inhabitants strive to save because of limited incomes and in most cases the earnings are under the consumption level. In turn, poor people are lack of saving to smooth their lives, to face unprecedented events and to improve future prosperity. Hence, to deal with those constraints, Wooden Saving Program is established which is based on a saving methodology but it is not in form of monetary (money), it in form of tree (celluloses, cambiums and woods) instead. Trees are planted and for certain periods those can be harvested for sum amount of money.

The root idea of Wooden Saving was inspired by Sri Lankan culture. In 2003, I went to Hikadua district in the southern region on the edge of Indian Ocean (one of areas which destroyed by Asian Tsunami in 2004) to assist NGOs to set up microfinance institutions. During field visits, I met local community leaders and unbanked rural inhabitants who are majority poor and lack of saving. Interestingly, there is a local culture which remains strong in the societies which adult family members planting tress when there is a baby born. The noble objective of this planting trees culture are: provision wood material for the baby when she/he gets married and need a new house, and future preservation as well.

In short, I translate the idea of the idea of Wooden Saving and start the program in my home country Indonesia with minor adjustment on the philosophy since it is aimed to break out the poverty trap by helping poor people to secure their children future education. Unfortunately, in Indonesia many young age kids are unable to access higher school because their parents are poor, lack of money and no saving to pay school fees, uniforms, books etc. The poor parents can’t save some money as the wealth do. Dropped out from primary or secondary school, in the young age, they have forced to work in low paid labor, later on they have become poor like their parents. I believe higher education can be a powerful tool to break down the vicious circle of poverty and trees can be financial resource to young generation to acheive their dreams.